Results for category "Pinterest"

According to Wishpond, 80% of Pinterest users are women. Stats like these keep men off the platform, but I’ve found a way to use it to my benefit. So here it goes! My birthday is on Wednesday, and what better way to put together what gifts I’d like? I can send this board to whomever, and they can click on one of the pins which will take them to the website where they can make the purchase. Check out more stats in this Pinterest Infographic.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

As a blog owner, SEO is constantly on my mind. You can drive traffic to your website by pinning images and including a link back to you. You’ll be surprised by the amount of traffic that you can receive from Pinterest. I mainly use it to post infographics.

WordPress Plugin

You may have noticed that when you hover over an image on my site, a pin it button appears. This is run by the J Query Pin It Button for Images Wordpress Plugin.

Tracking the traffic

You can track the traffic that is coming to your website from Pinterest too! If you have Google Analytics setup, go to Traffic Sources>Overview>All Traffic and then search for Pinterest. I am just starting to use Pinterest in my strategy, but I can expect these numbers to increase.

As always, thank you for reading. If you liked this post, I’d like to ask that you buy me everything on my Pinterest Birthday List…just kidding! All I ask is that you share this post with your social networks. If you’d like to stay up to date with sociallygold.com, you can subscribe, Like SociallyGold on Facebook and Follow SociallyGold on Twitter.

Do you want to engage your fans with a social media contest? This post will highlight ideas others have already used. Facebook was purposely excluded from this list as it falls into another category because of their strict guidelines.

1. Vine

Although Instagram introduced video on June 20, 2013, Vine still has its place in the social media landscape for a few reasons. Vine videos loop and Instagram videos do not. Also, Vine videos will show directly in a users Twitter feed, where Instagram videos and photos will not. Twitter will not show a post from Instagram in a Twitter Card, which directly embeds the video.

Now let’s get to the contest ideas. Vine also supports #hashtags, so you can create a hashtag for your brand and encourage participants to use that hashtag in their video submission.

SociallyGold Tip: Don’t base winners solely on likes, comments and shares. Contests can easily be hacked, so have your winner chosen by a panel of judges instead. Several Brands have run Vine Contests, but the important takeaway is that the contests featured did not receive a ton of entries. You should only run a contest on a platform that you know your fans are on.

2. Instagram

Instagram does allow for video now, but creating a photo contest should attract participants. This platform also allows #hashtags, which you can use to encourage entries. Most of the Instagram contests I found also allow for entries on Twitter, but there is one I’d like to highlight. Pizza Express’ Get Kids Cooking Contest encourages entrants to download a certain recipe and post their photo to either Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and upload via the website.

SociallyGold Tip: This contest has a high barrier for entry. You not only have to download the recipe, and take the photo, but you actually have to make the food. This could discourage the number of entries because of the number of steps.

3. Pinterest

The digital pin board website is a great place to run a contest. Scotch Brand ran a contest to encourage their fans to add one (1) Photo of a project created using Scotch® Expressions Tape or Printed Scotch® Packaging Shipping Tape to a board on the entranst personal Pinterest page. The contest rules asked participants to email the link from their pin to a designated email address. The facilitator of the contest would judge all entries and add second round entries to a branded Scotch® pin board.

SociallyGold Tip: Don’t base judging solely on repins and likes. Definitely include that as your criteria, but have judges also be in on choosing the winner. Pinterest will allow a user to repin an image to multiple boards, which could allow them to hijack the contest.

These are just a few ideas of contests to run on platforms other then Facebook. Please keep in mind that you do not need to run a contest on every new platform. Make sure your fans are on that platform before jumping in the deep end to run a contest.

Social Media Marketing is accelerating fast and the habits of most businesses are not caught up with those of the typical user. It’s important to start thinking about how you can future proof your brand.

The infographic below is a wealth of information and fun to look at too! My favorite quote in all? “Don’t be as engaging as a rock!”

In this post, I’ll discuss two ways you can use Pinterest for your social media campaign and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which I will explain more about below. According to this graphic on Pinterest, 80% of Pinterests’ user base is women. As a man, I didn’t see a use for Pinterest until recently.

I work for Gables Residential, which is an apartment community management company. I am on a team that manages nearly 150 Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and other social media pages. The goal of those social media pages is to interact with the residents, as well as increase SEO (Sear Engine Optimization), which intern leads to new leases and revenue for the company.

SEO is the tech term for how to get your website as close to the top of Google as possible. The more content you have on the internet with your links, the better off you are.

Pinterest Contest idea 1

We ran a “Pin it to win it” contest in which we provided a list of pictures that entrants needed to post in order to be eligible to win. We posted a Facebook Survey application on our main Facebook page, where after users completed their Pinterest board with the required photos, they could fill out the form and send us their link to their Pinterest board for us to review.

We ran the contest to introduce our Pinterest Page, and worked well. We pin inspirational quotes, decorating ideas, images of our apartment communities, entertaining tips and more. If you can afford it, consider running a Pinterest contest to build engagement and awareness of your page.

Pinterest Contest idea 2

In October, we ran a Halloween Pet Costume Contest on Facebook and it also received a lot of attention. We not only posted the winners on Facebook, but we posted the winner from each community on Pinterest as well.

When the resident submitted their pet photo, we asked them to post it on their personal Facebook page, included the link to where it was posted on our community Facebook page and asked them to “share” it with their friends and family. The goal was for their friends and family to see that it was posted from the Gables Town Colony Facebook Page.

This photo received over 130 Likes and over 30 comments when it was originally posted on Facebook. You’ll see a QR code and a link to the originating Facebook Page to help with SEO and point users back to the Gables Town Colony Facebook Page.

It’s important to note that Facebook does not allow you to run contests where the winner is chosen by the number of likes the picture has. See Facebook promotion guidelines to make sure you don’t run the risk of being shut down by Facebook.

Will you add Pinterest to your social media campaign? Let us know in the comments what you use Pinterest for.

SUBSCRIBE TO SOCIALLYGOLD

* indicates required

Email Address *

Name *

About me...

I'm a social media and tech community manager with a passion for using my social media skills for good. Read More about me!